The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus including a unit, such as an intermediate transfer unit, which is horizontally attachable and detachable with respect to an apparatus main body.
Various image forming apparatuses have conventionally been proposed, among which there are ones that adopt an intermediate transfer method and include an endless-shaped intermediate transfer belt configured to rotate in a predetermined direction and a plurality of image forming portions arranged along the intermediate transfer belt, the image forming portions configured to form toner images, which are sequentially transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt to be superimposed one on another, to be then transferred altogether onto a recording medium.
In the image forming apparatuses adopting the intermediate transfer method as described above, the intermediate transfer belt needs to be replaced regularly, because its life is shorter than the life of the apparatus main body. For example, there is known an image forming apparatus which has an intermediate transfer unit that is drawable in the horizontal direction from the main body of the image forming apparatus.